Good morning, and a most blessed Thursday to you.

In our time of devotion together in God’s Word, we’re going to look at the Lord’s Prayer. We could certainly study it in great depth—examining each petition and exploring the richness of what Jesus teaches us to pray. But this morning, I’d like for us to view the Lord’s Prayer through the lens of simplicity.

During Lent, we take time to consider and meditate on the simple truths of our spiritual lives—which, of course, encompass our entire lives. We return to the basic reality that we are sinners and can do nothing to remedy our sin.

Yet God, in His mercy, entered into creation. Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity, took our sins and their punishment upon Himself on the cross. And on Easter, we rejoice that His sacrifice was accepted. We know this is true because the tomb is empty and Jesus is alive.

With that beautiful and simple Gospel truth in mind, let’s look at the Lord’s Prayer and its beauty in simplicity.

The first place we find it is in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter six. Jesus is teaching about prayer, warning against heaping up empty phrases or speaking merely for the sake of speaking. Then He says in verse nine, “Pray then in this way”:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial,
but rescue us from the evil one.”

We also find the Lord teaching this prayer in the Gospel of Luke, chapter eleven. There we read that Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” So He said to them:

“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.”

In our worship services, we generally use a version of the Lord’s Prayer that more closely follows Matthew’s account. But in both accounts, we see the same beautiful simplicity.

We address God as Father.
We ask that His name be kept holy.
We pray for His kingdom and His will.
We ask for daily provision.
We ask for forgiveness—and acknowledge the call to forgive others.
We ask for protection from trial and from the evil one.

These are simple and beautiful petitions. Christ teaches us to pray them because we know that God hears us.

And while we know that His love for us is deep and beyond full comprehension, it is also wonderfully simple: God loves us. Period.

Have we earned it? No.
Do we deserve it? Certainly not.

Yet in His mercy, God has deemed it right to love you—to love you to the point of death on the cross, to love you to the point of rising to life, and to love you to the point of ensuring that you hear the good news of salvation in Christ and Christ alone.

With that in mind, I pray that this week you might have the opportunity to share that simple, beautiful news of forgiveness and salvation with someone else.

Let us close by praying the prayer our Lord taught us:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory,
forever and ever. Amen.

What a good and gracious God we serve. I look forward to worshiping His holy name with you again this Sunday.

Until then, God bless.

Pastor Malinak